How can I make eLearning resources accessible?
When you’re new to eLearning accessibility, it can feel overwhelming. This can often be because there are a range of different disabilities and impairments to be aware of. We have grouped disabilities into the four categories most commonly used for digital accessibility and given you some key requirements for accommodating each of them in your learning content.
“Diversity is our world’s greatest asset, and inclusion is our biggest challenge.”
Jutta Trevirarnus
eLearning accessibility accommodations for different types of impairments
One way to make accessibility standards easier to work with is to consider how they can help people with different types of impairments. This page gives an overview of some of the ways that you can accommodate learners with different types of access needs in your learning content. While many of the standards are beneficial to people with a range of different disabilities, the list below groups them according to the main impairment they support.
Visual impairments
- Add alternative text to all visual elements.
- Provide transcripts and audio description for videos.
- Ensure meaning is not conveyed by colour alone e.g. green for correct and red for incorrect.
- Ensure high contrast text, visuals, and navigation items.
- Ensure learners can enlarge text up to 200% without loss of content or functionality.
- Make it easy for learners to navigate using a screen reader e.g. use header styles.
- Ensure that your content follows a logical structure for screen reader users.
Hearing impairments
- Provide captions for videos.
- Provide transcripts for audio and video resources.
- Allow learners to stop audio, or control the volume.
- Avoid background audio behind speech in video or audio tracks.
- Avoid audio only instructions or warnings (e.g. if a question is answered incorrectly).
Motor impairments
- Make sure that learners can use your resource without using a mouse, only a keyboard.
- Allow learners enough time to complete tasks or do not set time limits.
- Use inclusive instructions e.g. select instead of click.
Cognitive differences
- Explain any complex vocabulary or abbreviations.
- Use clear and consistent navigation.
- Allow learners to pause, stop or hide any moving elements.
- Do not include any content which flashes more than three times per second.
- Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for the context.
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